FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT RICHIE COLE - PAGE 2

During the next couple of weeks, Charlie Parker tributes will be turning up everywhere. Following are a few highlights: On TV "American Masters," the excellent public-television series of documentaries, produced one of its best programs on Parker: "Celebrating Bird: The Triumph of Charlie Parker." The program will be re-broadcast at 9 p.m. Monday on WTTW-Ch. 11. On stage Chicago jazz impressario Joe Segal has been honoring Bird's birthday since the year of the great musician's death, 1935.

Art Cultural critic Michele Wallace will speak about political correctness, one of the most inflammatory issues of the decade, in relation to what one might call "a politics of difference," at 6 p.m. Monday in the auditorium of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Columbus Drive at Jackson Boulevard. Admission is $3. - Alan G. Artner Classical The Chicago Chamber Musicians are experts at chasing the winter blahs with shrewd programming. Their all-Slavic subscription program holds Antonin Dvorak's lively String Quintet in G Major and charming Waltzes, paired with Leos Janacek's exquisite "Mladi" (Youth)

Two teenage boys have been found guilty of the murder and rape of a 75-year-old West Side woman whose adopted son was shoved into a closet and heard the woman crying as she was attacked. Richie Cole, 17, of 118 S. California Ave., and Anselm Holman, 18, of 3408 W. Fulton Blvd., were found guilty by juries Friday and Thursday night of murder, rape, home invasion and burglary. On May 9, 1984, the two broke into the home of Mary Brackenridge, who lived at 3333 W. Fulton Blvd.

Though the 15th Chicago Jazz Festival runs Sept. 10-12, the festivities actually begin on Wednesday, with the annual Jazz Festival Club tour, a kind of opener for the week's activities. As always, buses will circulate among all the participating clubs every 30 minutes, beginning at 6:30 p.m. and running until 11 p.m. Because the $5 ticket includes admission to 10 clubs throughout the night as well as bus transportation, this has to be one of the best music buys in town. Following is the complete lineup of clubs and attractions for this year's tour; for more information, phone the Jazz Institute of Chicago at 312-427-1676.

It isn't easy being Nat "King" Cole's kid brother -- especially when you yearn to be a jazz musician. But Freddy Cole has managed the situation elegantly, all things considered. His voice may evoke memories of his more celebrated sibling (who died in 1965 at age 45), but the younger Cole has worked hard and long to forge a musical identity of his own -- despite audience expectations. "Throughout my whole career, people see my name out there, and they think I'm going to sing 'Mona Lisa' and 'Nature Boy,'" says Freddy Cole, citing two of his brother's many hits.

Clark Terry, one of the most influential trumpeters in jazz, will be in residence this weekend for various related events. He'll lead a 16-piece band in an all-Ellington concert beginning at 7 p.m. Sunday in Mandel Hall at the University of Chicago, 1131 E. 57th St. The ensemble will include such noted Chicago artists as tenor saxophonist Eddie Johnson, trumpeters Art Hoyle and Bobby Lewis, trombonist John Watson and drummer Charlie Braugham....

Chicagoans will remember the exuberant alto saxophonist Richie Cole from numerous local appearances when he was living in Milwaukee a couple of years ago. Cole, who has since moved away, makes a return visit this weekend, playing Friday through Feb. 15 at the Jazz Showcase, 59 W. Grand Ave. Expect his jazz version of "Volare," as well as other unusual titles. 312-670-BIRD. - Howard Reich THEATER: CIRCUS MAXIMUS Who would have guessed that the onetime quaintly circus would prove such cutting-edge entertainment in the '90s?

No matter how seriously you take your music, it's all right on New Year's weekend to listen just for the fun of it. And the triple bill of Richie Cole, Judy Roberts` trio and David "Fathead" Newman at the Jazz Showcase this weekend delivers its smiles with laughter and uncommon style. In Friday night's opening set, Cole was a perfect jokester on the alto saxophone, daring Roberts and her rhythm section to keep up with him in his musical pranks. One moment he seemed to have sprung directly out of a bebop gig at the turn of the 1950s, and the next he was quoting as corny an "Auld Lang Syne" as anyone played in a slicked-down swing band a decade before.

Since the turn of this century, when New Orleans musicians began migrating to Chicago, jazz artists have been venturing here to make their names and launch their careers. Because so many of these players stayed in Chicago, and because the city always has been a fertile setting for jazz experimentation, Chicago remains home to some of the world's more celebrated jazz virtuosos. The list of gifted musicians who live and work here could fill a small book, so the following is a look at a few of the Chicago stars who are respected wherever jazz is played: - Wilbur Campbell: The quintessential be-bop drummer, Campbell has been "dropping bombs" and setting off other rhythmic explosions for roughly half a century.